By Sachit Subba • Volleyball • Sep 01, 2026 17:17 PM • 37 views
On Wednesday the Nepali national beach volleyball teams set off from Kathmandu for Thimphu with one aim in mind: to win the gold medal at the CAVA Beach Volleyball Tour. The tournament is due to start on September 4 and end on September 6. Nepal will send four pairs into the competition, consisting of two women's teams and two men's teams who will play against teams from the region.
Veteran player Kamala Pun leads the women's team and has experience winning on the international stage. She is paired with Kopila Rana for this event. Sunita Rai and Bhawana Dangi make up the other women's pair. On the men's side, Mahendra Shrestha and Rajkumar Niraula are teaming up. Jhamansingh Darji and Sharan Karki are the second men's pair. Sriram Bogati is the coach of the whole group, and Jitendra Shrestha is in charge of the ten-member travelling party.
Anyone who follows sports in South Asia will see the immense pressure on these athletes. They have to compete against tough opponents such as the hosts Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Uzbekistan. Nepal has a strong history of success; our athletes showed their dominance in matches in Thimphu and in recent tournaments. This year, Kamala Pun and Manisha Chaudhary won a gold medal in Bhutan by beating Uzbekistan in the final game. Pun also earned a silver medal in Bangladesh with Kopila Upreti. The men's side has had similar success in the past. Man Bahadur Shrestha and Dil Bahadur Sunar won silver medals at a previous CAVA event in Bangladesh.
Ramcharit Mehta, a member secretary of the National Sports Council, and Jitendrabahadur Chand, president of the Nepal Volleyball Association, attended the official farewell. Mehta told the athletes that they bore the pride of thirty million citizens. He openly discussed the problems existing within the Nepali sports system. The lack of adequate infrastructure and limited financial resources means they cannot hold extended training camps. The teams prepared for only one month before leaving. Yet Mehta believes the players can execute their strategies and make the most of this opportunity.
Chand sees this tournament as a first step. Beach volleyball will be one of the events at the forthcoming 14th South Asian Games in Pakistan. Chand stresses that the national sports organisations should draw up a well-structured preparation programme at once. He has asked the National Sports Council to include beach volleyball in the next 10th National Games. It is important to maintain regular domestic competition. The NVA points out that the absence of continuous training and participation in international matches presents huge obstacles. The fact is that your support for these athletes is important since they are facing these same difficulties on the sand in Bhutan.
The coaching team settled on their tactics over the short four-week camp. Bogati stressed defensive positioning and aggressive serving to deal with taller opponents. The players packed their equipment on Wednesday morning knowing full well that three days of competition would take a physical toll. They arrived in Thimphu aiming to turn their limited practice into podium finishes.
